On online auction site eBay, a $100,000,000,000,000
Zimbabwean dollar note is a collector's item, fetching up to u$s 35.
It is a small fortune compared with
the u$s 0.40 offered by the central bank, as it seeks to officially bury the
worthless currency.
The unloved Zimbabwean dollar,
busted by hyperinflation that peaked at 500 billion percent in 2008, ceased to
be legal tender on Friday.
The southern African country is
switching fully to the U.S. dollar. By September citizens must exchange their
remaining quadrillions of local dollars for a few greenbacks.
However, since 90 percent of the
economy has been based on the U.S. dollar since 2009, few people are expected
to make a beeline to banks to cash in old notes - especially as they can get a
far better deal elsewhere.
"I think this is a waste of
time. I will try to sell the money to tourists," said Shadreck Gutuza, a
former currency trader who now buys and sells used cars from Japan.
"Most people either burnt that
money or dumped it," he told Reuters.
On eBay a seller is offering a
hundred 50 trillion Zimbabwean dollar notes for $1,000.
Zimbabwe's hyperinflation was
considered by the International Monetary Fund as the worst for any country not
at war, and the 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar note was the single
largest known note to be printed by any central bank.
Last Friday some tourists paid $20
for a single note in the resort town of Victoria Falls.
"I buy a 100 trillion note for
$10 if they are many, but they must be clean," said an Indian trader who
sells fabrics in downtown Harare.
The government has set aside $20
million to mop up Zimbabwean dollar notes and to compensate customers who had
local currency bank balances before March 31, 2009.
Bank accounts with balances of up to
175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars - that's 175,000,000,000,000,000 -
will be paid $5. Those with higher balances will get a rate of $1 to 35
quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.
